Exercises from Graphic Design for Game Designers:
Element Analysis of Cheese or Font
- Core
- Cheese/Font Name Title
- Answer Input (textbox, buttons, etc.)
- Timer
- Score
- Supportive
- Full List of Cheeses/Fonts
- Next/Prev Buttons
- Instruction Text
- Extraneous
- Background Color
Layout Ideas
Exploring Proximity
What should be grouped?
The buttons for selecting “cheese” or “font” should be grouped together because they are both clickable and serve the purpose of answer input. I like the idea of having the name title of the current cheese/font being grouped with the timer because when the player reads the name, they can easily see how much time they have to decide whether it is a cheese or font. This grouping based on relevance and relatedness rather than sameness.
What is different, and thus should be separated from gameplay?
The score should be separate from all of the other core elements because it reflects the player’s performance in the game as a whole which is not directly relevant to their decision on an individual cheese/font.
Graphic Design Principles in Sables:
Sable is an open-world exploration game where you travel around different regions, complete missions for the locals, and hopefully find your purpose in life along the way. I find that the design principles of size and contrast help bring Sable to life. One of the first things that I noticed when playing the game was that the character is so small compared to the wide view of the camera. Using size in this way makes the world look vast and effectively conveys the objective of exploration to the user. Additionally, all of the regions in Sable have distinctive color palettes. The desert terrain uses a variety of warm reds and oranges while the crystal terrain uses a collection of cool blues and purples. These creates strong visual contrast between the regions and compliments the unique personalities that correspond to each of the regions. Overall, it is interesting to see how well the graphic design of Sable conveys the explorative nature of the game.
